Monday, February 27, 2017

Mahershala Ali

a 2016 American drama film directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, based on the previously unpublished play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by McCraney. It stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali ... he film tells the story of a black man by following him through three episodes: as a young boy, as a teenager, and as an adult.

But I do know of the actor in the film who won the award for Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali ... he was one of my favorite actors in the tv series The 4400. Here's his acceptance speech for Moonlight ...

Sunday, February 26, 2017

RIP: Bill Paxton

He has always been a favorite actor of mine from the time he appeared in a bit part in the first Terminator movie. He was more known for films like Apollo 13 and Twister , but I appreciated some of his lesser known films, like Frailty .... Roger Ebert gave it four stars in his review.

But it will probably come as no surprise that his role that I liked the most was in one of my favorite movies of all, Aliens, in which he played a Colonial Marine, Private Hudson ... he won a Saturan award for best supporting actor. Here he is, very confident, as the drop ship carries the marines and civilian consultant Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) down to the planet that's been taken over by alien monsters ...

Trump tries to control the press

Today the Trump administration banned news outlets critical of the president - The New York Times, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, the BBC, etc. - from access to a White House press briefing. This is how dictators get started. Here's The Lead ...

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Snowden

a 2016 American biographical political thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald, based on the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena. The cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character, Edward Snowden, with Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage also starring.

The film tells the story that we all mostly know by now, but in fascinating detail. It was chilling to see what the various intelligent agencies have been doing in their massive surveillance of, well, us. Interesting to see journalist Glenn Greenwald's part in what happened. And it's all depressing and scary, yes, but the good news is that the truth came out. Snowden has said that he's not a hero, but I think he is indeed a brave and idealistic hero.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Rogue One: the book

My latest book checked out from the public library is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed. It's a novelization of the movie, which I haven't seen yet, a New York Times bestseller, and so far it's fairly interesting. I am looking forward to the film, if only to see one of my sister's favorite actors, Mads Mikkelsen.

Here's the blurb for the book ...

As the shadows of the Empire loom ever larger across the galaxy, so do deeply troubling rumors. The Rebellion has learned of a sinister Imperial plot to bring entire worlds to their knees. Deep in Empire-dominated space, a machine of unimaginable destructive power is nearing completion. A weapon too terrifying to contemplate . . . and a threat that may be too great to overcome.

If the worlds at the Empire’s mercy stand any chance, it lies with an unlikely band of allies: Jyn Erso, a resourceful young woman seeking vengeance; Cassian Andor, a war-weary rebel commander; Bodhi Rook, a defector from the Empire’s military; Chirrut Îmwe, a blind holy man and his crack-shot companion, Baze Malbus; and K-2SO, a deadly Imperial droid turned against its former masters. In their hands rests the new hope that could turn the tide toward a crucial Rebellion victory—if only they can capture the plans to the Empire’s new weapon.

But even as they race toward their dangerous goal, the specter of their ultimate enemy—a monstrous world unto itself—darkens the skies. Waiting to herald the Empire’s brutal reign with a burst of annihilation worthy of its dreaded name: Death Star.

Trump's press conference

Today I watched the above video clip of part of a press conference with Trump. It was chilling. I'm not sure how to explain it except to say "watch it yourself" but suffice it to say that it's an example of how to spin a web of lies. The creepy things: many people will believe he's telling the truth; many others will know he's being dishonest but will think the lying is just a sign of his power.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Gates Foundation & Trump's global gag rule

Bill and Melinda Gates speak out about Trump's imposition of the Mexico City policy (the global gag rule) which blocks US money from going to any organization overseas that does abortions or even only discusses abortion with patients. This includes organizations that provide contraception to poor women, that help AIDS patients, malaria patients, patients with TB, etc.

[O]utside the U.S. and other wealthy nations with advanced medical systems and reproductive health care, access to birth control can be “a matter of life and death,” Gates writes, crediting family-planning services with keeping 124,000 women alive in 2016. Without reliable contraception, women and children are less likely to be healthy and more likely to perish during or after childbirth. In the areas where the Gates Foundation focuses its work, spacing out children by at least three years doubles the chance of a child’s survival to age 1

In a better world, this kind of unambiguous data would engender widespread support for programs that give women the resources they need to determine for themselves when, whether, and how they give birth. In our actual world, Donald Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule, which cuts U.S. funding from any organization that provides abortion care, information, or referrals, even though U.S. aid already can’t go toward abortion care itself. This means some of the world’s most comprehensive, far-reaching programs in the reproductive health sphere are now ineligible for U.S. aid money. Previous research has connected the rule to spikes in unplanned pregnancies and, ironically, abortion rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Gates’ essay predicts that Trump’s reinstatement of the gag rule will bump up the number of women who want to prevent pregnancy but don’t have access to contraception, a statistic that currently sits at 225 million women worldwide ....

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

So, who is Stephen Miller?

Stephen Miller (born August 23, 1985) is a senior advisor to President Donald Trump. Prior to his current appointment, he was the communications director for then-Alabama senator Jeff Sessions .... In November 2016, Miller was named national policy director of Trump's transition team. On December 13, 2016, the transition team announced that Miller will serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy during the Trump administration ....

But it's much more revealing to watch him speak for the Trump administration ...

How scary is that? Even more scary, Trump thinks this guy is doing a good job.

Thank God for the comic relief of Stephen Colbert - here he speaks of Trump and then Miller ...

Thursday, February 09, 2017

The Republicans make pollution legal again

I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that if you wanted to test a man's character you should give him power. Now the Republicans have all the power they want, and what was one of the first things they did with it? They made polluting waterways legal again ...

With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really fulfill Trump’s goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can ....

Every day it's some new awful thing. I know I keep saying this but I guess I still can't really get over it. I'm beginning to come to a depressing conclusion .... the Republicans in Congress and the people who support them are not misinformed or naive or laboring under complex burdens ... they're just bad people.

In a stunning moment on the Senate floor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren clashed with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday night after McConnell determined the Massachusetts Democrat had violated a Senate rule against impugning another senator.
In an extremely rare rebuke, she was instructed by the presiding officer to take her seat. Tuesday night's rule means Warren will be barred from speaking on the floor until Sessions' debate ends, McConnell's office confirmed. The debate is expected to conclude Wednesday night. ...

Seven percent of priests in Australia's Catholic Church were accused of sexually abusing children over the past several decades, a lawyer said Monday as officials investigating institutional abuse across Australia revealed for the first time the extent of the crisis.

The statistics were released during the opening address of a hearing of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The royal commission — which is Australia's highest form of inquiry — has been investigating since 2013 how the Catholic Church and other institutions responded to the sexual abuse of children over decades ...

- 37% of all private sessions royal commission held with survivors related to the Catholic church
- The average age of alleged victims was 10.5 for girls and just over 11.5 for boys
- In one order 40% of religious brothers are believed to have abused children

I've been reading about this for years, about Cardinal Pell, who reigned in Australia until Pope Francis whisked him away to Rome to be one of his top guys. Pell was supposed to give testimony at the commission, but he refused to leave Rome (you know, extradition-proof digs). For those who are interested in the history of Pell and the sex abuse crisis in Australia, here are some of my earlier posts ...

The Pope should fire Cardinal Pell and send him back to Australia to face the music. And the Pope should do something that will actually make a difference to the sex abuse crisis, like ending mandatory celibacy. But I predict Pope Francis will do nothing at all and will ignore the news and hope no one brings it up.

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Trump administration is hurting animals too

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday abruptly removed inspection reports and other information from its website about the treatment of animals at thousands of research laboratories, zoos, dog breeding operations and other facilities.

In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cited court rulings and privacy laws for the decision, which it said was the result of a “comprehensive review” that took place over the past year. It said the removed documents, which also included records of enforcement actions against violators of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, would now be accessible only via Freedom of Information Act Requests. Those can take years to be approved.

“We remain equally committed to being transparent and responsive to our stakeholders’ informational needs, and maintaining the privacy rights of individuals with whom we come in contact,” the statement said.

The records that had been available were frequently used by animal welfare advocates to monitor government regulation of animal treatment at circuses, scientific labs and zoos. Journalists have used the documents to expose violations at universities.

Members of the public could also use the department’s online database to search for information about dog breeders, as could pet stores. Seven states currently require pet stores to source puppies from breeders with clean USDA inspection reports, according to the Humane Society of the United States — a requirement that could now be impossible to meet.

Animal welfare organizations quickly condemned the removal of the information, which they called unexpected and said would allow animal abuse to go unchecked.

“The USDA action cloaks even the worst puppy mills in secrecy and allows abusers of Tennessee walking horses, zoo animals and lab animals to hide even the worst track records in animal welfare,” said John Goodwin, senior director of the Humane Society’s Stop Puppy Mills Campaign, which uses the federal records, as well as state inspection reports, to publish its annual “Horrible Hundred” dog breeding operations that have been cited for welfare violations.

In a statement, Kathy Guillermo, the senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called it “a shameful attempt to keep the public from knowing when and which laws and regulations have been violated. Many federally registered and licensed facilities have long histories of violations that have caused terrible suffering.”

It is unclear whether the decision to remove the animal-related records was driven by newly hired Trump administration officials. When asked questions about the change, a USDA-APHIS representative referred back to the department’s statement. The Associated Press reported that a department spokeswoman declined to say whether the removal was temporary or permanent .....

Judge blocks Muslim ban nationwide

In a stunning rebuke, a federal judge in Seattle has ordered a national halt to enforcement of President Trump’s controversial travel ban on citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations. U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled Friday afternoon in favor of Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who sued this week to invalidate key provisions of Trump’s executive order.

"It is not the loudest voice that prevails in a courtroom - it's the Constitution ... I'm certain the president will not like this decision, but it is his job, it is his responsibility, it is his obligation as our president to honor it. And I'll make sure he does."

Friday, February 03, 2017

You're A Better Man Than I

When I was a kid I loved these guys, especially the vocalist, Keith Relf :) Here's one of their songs from the dim past that's still relevant today ...

Can you judge a man
By the way he wears his hair?
Can you read his mind
By the clothes that he wears?
Can you see a bad man
By the pattern on his tie?
Then Misty you're a better man than I
Yeah Misty You're a better man than I
Oh Misty You're a better man than I
Yeah Misty You're a better man than I

Could you tell a wise man
By the way he speaks or spells?
Is this more important
Than the stories that he tells?
And call a man a fool
If for wealth he doesn't strive
Then Misty you're a better man than I
Yeah Misty You're a better man than I
Oh Misty You're a better man than I
Yeah Misty You're a better man than I

Could you condemn a man
If your faith he doesn't hold?
Say the color of his skin
Is the color of his soul?
Or could you say if men
For king and country all must die?
Then Misty you're a better man than I
Yeah You're a better man than I
Oh Misty You're a better man than I
Yeah Misty You're a better man than I